History of Likeme Display. Part 1. Getting Started
In a series of articles, we will talk about the basic stages of LikeMe Display development.
In the next parts we will try to describe the detailed technical aspects of using the E Ink displays, as we have a non-disclosure treaty signed with E Ink, and we need to clarify beforehand what can be published.
The idea of using the ink display didn’t come up right away, at first we wanted to use LSD or OLED displays and considered various options
But the main thing we wanted to achieve was a long battery life and compact size, so that the screen could be placed anywhere.
As a result, we came across a promotional video about e-paper screen, on which the picture remains after it’s off
We decided that the microcontroller can stay in a sleep mode as long as possible, which will greatly save battery
When choosing a design, we didn’t want to make it so obtrusive and to litter the shop windows, but to make it extremely informative and readable from a distance of 10-20m
Our first hardware developer said that he had never worked with such screens and soon recommended us to look for an alternative.
To find a developer who would undertake this task wasn’t that easy. About 10 interviews were conducted in person. As a rule, mostly they all worked with Arduino, and did not want to take up the non-fundamental task. One team from Kiev said they were ready to take up the challenge, but after a few days we found the guys in Uzhgorod who also claimed that they didn’t see this as a problem.
In a personal meeting guys showed us basically the scheme of work with these modules and retail prices for them. For individual E Ink display, battery consumption amount was calculated together with its operation. Also it was suggested to use a few solar panels on its body for complete autonomy.
And also it was agreed to make a separate module to connect to the internet, so there would be no need to turn on the screen once again
Then we started to develop a preliminary design and to choose appropriate displays to it
We’ve looked through many options, but couldn’t find the right size .. eventually we began to negotiate with the two manufacturers about the cost of production of non-standard screens.
As a way out, we’ve decided to make a panel of two E Ink screens 3.5 size with a resolution 350x600 each and gradation in 16 shades
The next article will be dedicated to the process of designing and assembling of the prototype ...
And a scheme of creating the control board will be described a bit later, after clarifying the rules.
The end of the part one.
